


Bedside

by pairatime



Series: Post-Gravity [2]
Category: Defying Gravity (1997)
Genre: Coma, Coming Out, Family, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-09
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-20 16:15:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/587296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pairatime/pseuds/pairatime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Pete wakes up his parents are right there at his bedside and it’s time they talked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bedside

**Author's Note:**

> For Lj's smallfandomfest’s 12 round: Defying Gravity (movie):Pete/Griff:Post movie - Pete talking to his parents about why he
> 
> So when it comes to Griff’s family I’ve fousced on his mother, so when I sat down to do something with Pete’s family I started with his father (who is the only parent to be given a canon name).

Bill couldn’t describe the relief he felt when the doctors finally let him and Laura back into their son’s room.

Pete looked groggy, still trying to shake the sleep from his eyes, but awake, awake and alive. That was enough.

“Mom? Dad?” Pete’s voice sounded dry, rough, to Bill’s ears but it was still better then it had been when he’d first tried speaking.

“It’s okay Pete; the doctor said you should be fine. If you wake up you’ll be fine,” the relief in his wife’s voice echoed everything he wanted to convey as he reached out and took his son’s hand in his, feeling a weight lift as he felt the fingers grip him back this time.

“I was attacked? I remember I was leaving-” He watched his son struggle, trying to remember and then his son’s eyes went wide, showing panic as his eyes flashed between the two of them.

“It’s okay, we know,” Her tone grounding him even as he saw Laura take Pete’s hand trying to calm their son, and he was still their son.

“You’ll always be our son, always,” It was a struggle to get it the word, not because they were hard in themselves, nothing Pete could ever do, be, could stop him from loving his only child. But the feelings of shame and failure of _needing_ to say them, knowing his son thought he could be pushed away.

“I’m gay,” Pete’s voice was soft, almost scared, like the look in his eyes, he could see the hope but the fear in his son’s eyes was just as clear.

Bill held his son’s hand, focusing on the steady thump of the pulse through, while he watched Laura give in and throw herself down and hug Pete, as much as she could between the bed and medical cords.

Seeing it, and the awkward look on Pete’s face as he tried to hug his mother back and hide the pain at all the movement, lifted another weight from him so he didn’t feel to bad when he gently pulled his wife back to give their son some room.

“We know,” he repeated, it was all he could trust himself to say without breaking so he took the easy way out and gripped his son’s hand tighter, conveying thought his touch what he didn’t know how to say with his voice.

I…I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I wanted to but…” his son sounded so lost and not his normal independent self, it felt completely wrong to him.

“It’s okay. You and Griff,” he had to stop as suddenly so many things made sense in a way they hadn’t before. Chats on the phone about the house that were names like Logan and Trip and Bozzy and most of all Griff but Griff was always said differently, in a tone that meant something more only until he said it aloud he’s never realized it. How could he have not realized it? “It’s okay,” he said again replaying everything again.

After Laura had told him about the boxers they’d suspected, the location, the attack, Pete never talking about a girl, or dating in high-school all added up to it. And when Griff had done nothing but listen when he warned his son’s fraternity brother not to hurt Pete…it had been years and they just hadn’t seen.

His son thought they hadn’t been trustworthy enough for their own son to trust them.

He broke. He couldn’t hold it in any more. He knew men didn’t hug, didn’t cry but he didn’t care; he’s almost lost his son because of those stupid rules.

“I love you,” his voice sounded so hoarse to himself he could only imagine what he sounded like to them but he just could stop himself from hugging his son for the first time in years really hugging his son and letting go, “you’re my son and I love you,” he repeated into his son’s neck feeling hands wrap around him.

***

“So how did you know?” His son’s voice broke the comfortable silence that had settled over them after his breakfast had been delivered. 

From the tone of his son’s voice and the look on his face it was something he’d wanted to know since they’re talk the day before but had been unable to. He’d only just pulled himself together when Griff had arrived, and Laura had all but dragged him from the room to let his son and his…boyfriend, speak in private, after which their son was to tried and worn out to do anything, much less ask any questions.

“He knew your favorite underwear, I understand you may be close to your fraternity brothers but…” he had to smile at the amusement in his wife’s response. And it was true. He had a number of good friends but he’d be hard pressed to even recall if they liked boxers or briefs, let along a favorite pair.

“And they aren’t even…I’m never going to let him hear the end of it,” seeing his son smile again felt good, and the kind of smile it was…his little boy had grown up and fallen in love hadn’t he?

“He looked lost, broken,” the words were out of his mouth before he’d even thought about saying them, “when he was here…he…he seemed dazed, not really here or anywhere. Not like your other friends.” He understood why now, if anything every happened to his Laura...

“Griff? But he’s always so…” he could understand the confusion in his son’s voice. Every other memory of the young man, even seeing him after he left the night before, he seemed very put together, stable.

“Love does that Pete,” so he wasn’t the only one to see it then. Good, Laura was always better at it then he was anyways.

“You think he…” He knew the smile in his son’s words, such a wishful tone before they drifted off as his son looked toward the window smile on his young lips, brought to his wife’s face her own smile that he knew was reflected on his own face. Sometimes you can’t help but smile along in the presence of young love.


End file.
